Here She Is, Miss Virginia

Newport News Woman Back In Competition

One day, you are an athlete at the peak of your game, a contender for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team.

The next day, you are crippled from a fall, you can't walk, and your dream comes to an abrupt end.

It was crushing when that happened to Newport News gymnast Tami Elliott two years ago. But the emotional pain didn't last long - not even as long as her four-month rehabilitation period.

"She was depressed for a couple of weeks," says her father, Ed Elliott. "But she was not that type of individual. She came back strong."

Strong enough to return to the bars, horses and balance beams that were a source of her strength in more ways than one. Strong enough to accept that she could be a dynamic instructor and an inspiration to younger gymnasts.

Strong enough to become 1989's Miss Virginia.

"I guess it's a shock to a lot of people," says the 24-year-old winner of last weekend's pageant in Roanoke. "I was a jock and didn't think about high heels and beauty pageants. I guess this shows that not always the prettiest one wins."

"She always had determination and spirit," says her father, who, like other members of her closely knit family, was there for her now as she prepares for the Miss America contest in September.

"At first I was hesitant," Tami Elliott concedes. "But I said, `If I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it.'"

She did it. First she was a finalist in the 1988 Miss Virginia pageant, competing as Miss Hampton-Newport News. Then she entered the Miss Portsmouth Seawall Festival contest about 1 1/2 months ago and won. Then came Roanoke, where she won the talent contest with her gymnastics demonstration and her dancing to the music from "The Phantom of the Opera." She also excelled in the interview and had to do well in the swimsuit and evening gown competitions.

"I told myself I was going to be myself," she says. "My biggest goal was to be myself. I was thinking, `If you like me, great. If another wins, that's all right.'"

At the Atlantic Academy of Gymnastics on Newport News' Jefferson Avenue, owner Bill Wennersten is less surprised by her winning than he was by her entering.

"She's not a pageant person," he says, meaning she doesn't fit some people's stereotype of beauty queen - shallow, pretentious and self-absorbed.

Because of what she's been through, she has a mature, philosophical outlook that celies her age.

"I learned from that accident to live every day to the fullest because you never know what could happen. One day, I am this All-American athlete. The next day, I couldn't walk. It made me realize not to take life for granted."

It happened in March 1987 at California State University in Fullerton. While practicing on a piece of equipment known as the horse, she tried a handspring with a half-twist and a black-flip out. Her hands missed the horse and Elliott landed on her head. She broke her neck.

"She was lucky," says Wennersten. "She started walking not long after the accident. She was in a neck brace and back brace one month, but she wasn't paralyzed."

Being well-conditioned had much to do with her recovery, he says. A gymnast's backbone has wider spaces between the vertebrae than does the backbone of a less-athletic person. This gives the athlete extraordinary flexibility and an ability to withstand spinal punishment. That flexibility prevented Elliott's backbone from breaking and her being paralyzed.

The winner of 10 collegiate All-American awards took her doctor's advise and gave up competitive gymnastics. She decided to return to her family's Denbigh-area home after college and put to use the teaching talents she learned as a physical education major. "My family is the reason I came home," says Elliott, the second youngest of five children and a 1983 graduate of Peninsula Catholic High School.

"When she came back, it was amazing what she could do," Wennersten recalls. Her academy students are gymnasts ranging in areas from 2 to 18. As she once did, some of them aspire to perform great feats in great arenas.

Ultimately, Elliott thinks she will go back to teaching at the academy, but in the coming year her time there will be limited. Regardless of the coutcome of the national pageant, Elliott will put in many public relations appearances in the Old Dominion. She also hopes for opportunities to model and act in television commercials.